Every Day is Saturday: Recipes + Strategies for Easy Cooking, Every Day of the Week

For András, Greta + Mátyás.

You are my Saturday, every day.

Text copyright © 2019 by Sarah Copeland.

Photographs copyright © 2019 by Gentl + Hyers.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 9781452168548 (epub, mobi)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Names: Copeland, Sarah (Food expert) author.

Title: Every day is Saturday : recipes + strategies for easy cooking, every day of the week / by Sarah Copeland ; photographs by Gentl + Hyers.

Description: San Francisco : Chronicle Books, [ 2019] | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018033082 | ISBN 9781452168524 (hardcover : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Cooking. | Quick and easy cooking. | LCGFT: Cookbooks.

Classification: LCC TX714 .C676 2019 | DDC 641.5—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018033082

Prop styling by Sarah Copeland.

Food styling by Sarah Copeland.

Design by Vanessa Dina.

Typesetting by Frank Brayton.

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CONTENTS

Introduction 8

Stock 12

BREAKFAST + BRUNCH 18

Mighty Yogurt Bowls with Currants and Peaches 20

Toasted Many-Seed Muesli with Summer Fruits 22

The Family Waffle 25

Johnny Cakes with Rhubarb and Sour Cherries 30

Chocolate Chip-Buckwheat-Banana Pancakes 33

Scrambled Eggs with Avocado, Pea Shoots, and Sesame Seeds 36

Vacation Fruit Salad 38

Nostalgia-Wins Blueberry Muffins 41

Hot Oats and Polenta with Raisins and Bananas 43

Leftover Brown Rice Breakfast Porridge 46

The Hungriest Houseguest 48

Chilaquiles v. Migas 50

TOAST + BREAD 52

Ultimate Bacon, Egg, and Avocado Toast with Turmeric Drizzle 54

Moroccan Tomato Toast 56

Tahini Toast with Lemon and Honey 58

Not My Mama’s Banana Bread 60

Chocolate Snacking Loaf 63

Ode to Avocado 66

MIDDAY MEALS 68

Greek Salad (Sort Of) 70

Radish Salad with Kale, Almonds, and Parm 72

Green Goddess Salad Bowls 74

Always-On Vegetable Soup 78

Creamy Mushroom Soup 80

Pozole Verde with Avocado and Radishes 82

Potato-Corn Chowder with Basil-Poblano-Garlic Relish 85

Yellow Bean Salad with Potatoes, Capers, and Eggs 87

Make Your Yogurt Work for You 90

GRAZING PLATTERS 92

Hungarian Snacking Tray 94

The Best White-Bread Sandwiches 96

The Everything Lox Lunch 98

A Gourmand’s Working Lunch 100

Sunday Night Dinner 102

MAINS 104

Braised Short Rib Supper 106

Spaghetti with Bacon and Sopressata Meatballs 109

All-Season Chicken Soup with Tortillas and Avocado 113

Summer Macaroni (Not Just for Summer) 114

Easy Peasy Linguine with Clam Sauce 117

Mexican Polenta Bowls with All the Fixings 118

White Risotto with Corn, Carrots, and Kale 120

Baked Fish with Cherry Tomatoes, Capers, and Herbs 123

About the Fish in My Purse 124

The Juiciest Whole Bird (and Broth) 126

COOKING FOR FRIENDS 128

Pizza Night 130

Chicken and Oysters 136

Crazy Simple Summer Supper 140

Make-Ahead Brunch for a Crowd 143

All-Occasion Taco Feast 146

Company Chicken 160

SWEETS 162

Almost-Famous Cranberry Bundt Cake 164

Flourless Chocolate Brownie Cake 167

Lemon-Polenta Slab Cake 170

Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream Cake 173

Extraordinarily Easy Tiramisu 176

Perfect Ratio Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies 179

A Chocolate Chip Cookie for Modern Times 182

Raspberry-Rhubarb Crumble 185

Easier-than-Pie Warm Apple Tart (It’s True) 188

Hungarian Baked Rice Pudding 192

So You Whipped Some Cream. Now What? 194

DRINKS + TONICS 196

Everyday Green Juice 198

Raw Cocoa-Honey Anytime Shake 200

Frothed Saffron Lassi 201

Raspberry Shrub 202

Pineapple Agua Fresca 203

Cucumber Cooler 206

Strawberry-Watermelon Smoothie 207

Infinitely Repeatable Smoothies 208

PROJECTS 210

Sunday Sauce 212

Save-the-Day Spinach Pie 215

Easy Chicken Liver Pâté 218

Homemade Oat-Almond Milk 219

The Only Green Sauce You Need 220

Everyday Dressings 222

Spicy Vegetable Stock 225

Good-with-Everything Pickled Onions 226

Salmon, Two Ways 228

Stash 232

How to Cook Like You Live in St. Tropez 240

Sources 244

Acknowledgments 246

Special Diets Index 248

Index 250

INTRODUCTION

THE FOOD OF LIFE

It was a regular Tuesday, the day Diana Henry’s latest book, A Bird in the Hand, arrived on my desk. On the cover were juicy pieces of roast chicken, drenched in olive oil, scattered liberally with deeply roasted lemons and fresh, blooming thyme. It’s the kind of classic, evocative food she’s known for—the kind of meal I wanted to cook for my family that night, or one day.

That’s what I remember thinking: One day, when I have a little more time. Maybe this winter, when things slow down.

But things didn’t slow down.

By that particular day, I’d been making a living cooking and writing about food for well over a decade. Food had always been an easy pleasure in my life. Making a meal like that shouldn’t have been a big challenge—the recipes in Diana’s book are not hard. I had all the ingredients and all the skills to make it. But sometimes life—even a good life—gets in the way of truly living.

At the time, I was waist-deep in my new role as food director at Real Simple magazine, a nine-to-five job in a shiny Midtown office, a lengthy subway ride from home. It was a dream job, and I was grateful and excited to have it, but the logistics were a big change. Until then, I had enjoyed working from home, writing cookbooks and recipes for magazines, or, long ago, cooking in restaurants and in a villa in St. Tropez. In short, good food was always within reach.

In those years I’d enjoyed flexible schedules, sit-down lunches, and deadlines that turned into dinners for me, my husband, András, and later our daughter, Greta. I luxuriated over a trip to the market, and cooked what made me feel alive and inspired. Above all, I adored cooking for the ones I loved.

My new life posed challenges to eating well—the kinds of challenges many of you know, too: a commute, long office days, a young child, a new business (my husband’s), house renovations, visitors, holidays, deadlines, and other fill-in-the-blank responsibilities.

As we settled into our routine, old healthy habits like home-cooked, sit-down meals with vegetables front and center fell away to a rush rush rush lifestyle, complete with get-it-done dinners of frozen dumplings, quesadillas, and pasta with butter and peas.

Of course, there were bright spots: Some days, Greta came to work with me, and we’d slip off to the Turkish place around the corner at lunch to eat olives and pitas to our hearts’ delight. That was heaven. Many days, I’d eat giant grain bowls around my desk with my colleagues, whom I adored, made with ingredients we rescued from our test kitchen the day before. I loved those days, too. Once in a blue moon I’d meet my husband for an éclair at the French pastry shop a stone’s throw from my office, in Rockefeller Center, or more rarely, grab a midday bowl of udon with a dear old friend. Those days felt almost perfect.

But little by little, the magic faded out of my home kitchen.

One day, sitting at my desk thinking about what I’d make for dinner that night, I felt stuck. How could this be? I wasn’t lacking for recipes or ideas: My desk was piled with cookbooks I was dying to put to use, and right under my nose were twenty pages of gorgeous recipes my crew and I had created for the magazine that month. Maybe I had fallen out of love with cooking. Maybe, after years of writing about, cooking, styling, and shooting food, my passion had simmered, bubbled, and boiled away.

Or maybe I just needed a nap.

WEEKENDS AT HOME

Just as I was running out of steam, the weekend would arrive. We’d pack up the car and drive ninety miles north of New York City to a little village in the Hudson Valley, where nothing was fancy, but where what we had was priceless—fresh air, a small garden, togetherness, and time: true luxuries.

I’d get Greta settled in bed, then head to the kitchen to hunt down some chocolate while András poured us tea. It didn’t matter how tired we were—the first taste of the weekend was not to be missed. He’d be talking to me about world events or house projects; I’d nod agreeably while silently plotting tomorrow morning’s French toast, a slow-braised Sunday lunch, and any excuse to bake.

The next morning, we’d head to the farmers’ market, flush with excitement, an empty basket, and a few twenties. We’d nibble croissants as we strolled the stalls, loading up on fruits and vegetables, a new plant for the garden, crusty breads, and ripe, stinky cheese.

Sure, we shopped at the farmers’ market during the week, too, but on weekends I’d leave with a feeling of urgency, eager to get home to chop, stir, and coax the flavors from each and every leafy green. I started arranging Saturdays around a stretch when Greta was napping and András was building something in the barn: I would turn on French Café Radio and create the kinds of meals that made our days feel like a life by design, the life of our dreams. Sometimes I’d stay there all day.

I had been so wrong; I wasn’t over food! I had just stopped feeding my life and my family the kinds of exciting, luscious foods we all need to thrive. My passion was still there, just starving.

Weekends saved it. They saved me.

Friday to Sunday, my lust for trying new foods and new ways of cooking them returned, renewed and more refined than before. I began to nurture my soul with Sunday sessions at the stove, making soups or stirring batters for tender loaf cakes, often with Greta or András by my side, long into the day.

Along the way our second, very hungry baby—our son Mátyás—arrived, and with him, new motivation to fill our home with every beautiful, nourishing food, the kinds I’d cooked early in my marriage and motherhood. I craved the foods that had filled the pages of my first books—Feast and The Newlywed Cookbook—but I no longer had time to shell peas or roll biscuits. I had to cook smarter.

The food we created for Real Simple had to be, above all, simple. So I flexed my simpler muscle at home, too, making things that did double duty, feeding us now and later. I’d make most of the meals we’d eat over the weekend—simple but supremely satisfying—along with a few stash-away items like a pungent green sauce (page 220) or Chocolate Snacking Loaf (page 63) for the week ahead. And instead of it feeling like work, it felt effortless—like I was winning, not working.

I figured out, weekend by blissful weekend, that maybe I’m just a weekend cook. And by just a weekend cook, I don’t mean just. I mean that maybe weekends are the answer. Maybe (or probably) I wasn’t the only one overwhelmed and desperate for a good meal to just appear. Maybe weekend cooking is the way for all of us modern humans. We don’t need to feel defeated or harried on weekdays, and luxurious and elated on weekends. I learned to use the weekend to feed and nurture my soul—and my family—for the whole week. And you can, too.

THE WEEKEND LIFE

Before long, my family made the mental shift to return to the weekend state of mind more of the time. It took a while to break out of some weekend habits that didn’t belong in our everyday life (daily croissants and bonfires with s’mores any ol’ time), but eventually things evened out and what emerged was a day-in, day-out feeling of wellness, goodness, wholeness, joy! What emerged was not a series of dips and peaks, but very good living, most of the time.

In time, that old familiar feeling of abundance returned, urging me to open our doors and extend our table to host weekend brunches and casual suppers with friends. Our home and table were always full, and instead of feeling drained, these gatherings renewed me and left me feeling lighter than before.

Our lives aren’t meant to be fast and functional, like my weekday life had become. Our lives were created to be vibrant—enriched with the foods that make us feel like we’re truly living, to the very fullest.

That kind of nurturing food—and, more important, the habits that help you place it front and center in your life (no matter where you live or work)—is exactly what this book is all about. It’s about having the weekend cook mentality all week long. It’s about finding ways to create wonder and passion at your table, despite busy family lives, dream jobs, time- consuming hobbies, or exciting new projects that demand your attention.

Because when it comes down to it, nothing gives me a greater sense of well-being than a pot of soup on the stove. Nothing makes me more proud than being the mama at the school party with the platter of warm cookies everyone is rushing toward, or getting a yes every time we invite friends to dinner because they know it will be nourishing, delicious, and fun. It is in those simple moments around a table, between the laughter and the wine and the bread and butter, that we most often get the feeling that no matter what is going on in the world, things will ultimately be